CJTFORM-Z Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 To all, I'm looking to add some new software to assist me with my small Architectural Business here in the UK, I’m currently using DataCAD, STI SPIRIT & SketchUP Pro. Not looking to spend a fortune, just looking to improve upon what I already have with a similar Budget as SU-Pro. In essence, I would like more architectural bias 3D integral tools than SketchUP has, rather than adding extension (plug-ins). I've been using SU since ver.3 & have seen Bonzai3D develop over the years. I've always thought Bonzai3D was perhaps the better of the two, but needed to also present my saved views, i.e. plans sections, visuals etc. on Layout sheets. At the time SU was developing, they produced a separate program called Layout, so this suited my needs. However I now see Form.Z-Pro (ver.8.5) has something similar, hence my new interest. I was initially looking at Form.Z-Jr, but then realised "Layout" was only part of Form.Z-Pro (ver.8.5). Price wise here in the UK SU & Form.Z are as listed below (incl.vat):- SKetchUp Pro (2015) = £480.00 Form.Z-Jr (ver.8) = £378.00 Form.Z-Pro (ver.8) = £762.00 I did hear talk that Form.Z may be offering their "Layout" version as an add-on & more interestingly a more bias version of Form.Z for the construction industry, i.e. Architecture/BIM. If true, this would be all very interesting for me & I'm sure other Architectural users currently using SU. One annoying factor though with SU Layout, is that being a separate program than SU, it does noticeably take a long time to update the sheet view ports when altering your SU model. I hope there will be another version of Form.Z-Jr in the not too distant future, this being :- Form.Z-Jr+ at £480.00 (similar price as SU-Pro) that includes an integrated sheet Layout tool. Any comments on this will be most appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 There are a few US retailers that will sell to you in the UK. I can't mention them here as UK distributors attempt to stamp down on US retailers selling to the UK but one retailer I know of is selling FormZ Pro for $845 which brinsg things more into line with the Sketchup UK price. A quick Google will find you a list of apt US retailers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Hi CJT, Welcome to the forum! Yes, we will be offering the Layout application as an addition for formZ Jr and Free in the future, but we don't have any more "official" information on that just yet. Perhaps in a few weeks we will have an announcement. Until then, we would recommend using the formZ Pro 8.5 trial (if you are interested in the Layout aspect). You can also find a comparison of the differences between formZ Pro and formZ Jr here (to see which may be a better fit for your needs): http://www.formz.com/featureslist/FeatureComparisonChart.html Please let us know if you have any further questions, we would be glad to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJTFORM-Z Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Hi CJT, Welcome to the forum! Yes, we will be offering the Layout application as an addition for formZ Jr and Free in the future, but we don't have any more "official" information on that just yet. Perhaps in a few weeks we will have an announcement. Until then, we would recommend using the formZ Pro 8.5 trial (if you are interested in the Layout aspect). You can also find a comparison of the differences between formZ Pro and formZ Jr here (to see which may be a better fit for your needs): http://www.formz.com/featureslist/FeatureComparisonChart.html Please let us know if you have any further questions, we would be glad to help. Hi Staff, (moderator) (no names..!!!) This is interesting news, so will wait until your "official-announcement" free certainly puts it top of the list, however if Form.Z-Jr was increased in price with Layout as noted as an integral software, this would equally be interesting & provide a progressive path to Form.Z-Pro. A separate free future "Sheet Layout" tool would be o.k, but the refresh times as SU-Pro suffers from will need to be addressed & certainly better than SU-Pro currently is. It's just a matter of re-structuring your pricing across the product range I guess for existing & new customers. I didn't see any comments on a future direction we read of Form.Z catering more in a bias version for the construction industry, i.e. Architecture/BIM, a statement to this fact would be needed in terms of a definite future planned direction for many businesses like ours for product commitment. Rhino+VisualARQ is another similar software we're looking into as also has an integral vital "Sheet Layout" tool. Thanks for all the comments to date, most appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Hey CJ, Free is a good starter program, and can certainly be used to supplement formZ Jr or Pro if used by others in the office, but I don't think Free is going to give you "everything" you are going to need. formZ Pro offers a LOT more than Jr + Layout. It may cost a few $$ more to begin with, but I would bet that in the next year or so you will be wanting the additional tools, so I would recommend going with Pro directly (unless you carefully reviewed the "comparison chart" and are "sure" you won't need any of the additional features). Don't get me wrong, Jr is great -- but if you also need Layout, then Pro would be my choice for the long run... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melkhaldi Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 i think the Layout can use a "refresh on demand" type of functionality( might exist already, but I didnt find it). this is common in tools like CATIA where a drawing that refetences an assembly or a part can be auto-updated (listens to file saved changes) or manually (triggered by user). a toggle-button does the job as far as UI goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Hi CJ, Yes, all those things are in the works, but we don't have any further info at this time. We will make announcements when we can. Hi Maher, Yes, an option for a manual refresh sounds like a good one, we will see if this can be added. For now, if you save your .FMZ file to a new name when you don't want it to update (perhaps filename_work.fmz), and then save it back to the main project name when you do want it to update, you can control it for now (at least on a per project basis). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJTFORM-Z Posted May 22, 2016 Author Share Posted May 22, 2016 To all, Still considering.... ... 8 months or so has past since my initial post, so was wondering if FZ-HQ had any updated news on this topic ? ...or did I miss the official announcement, as intimated something to be issued in a few weeks..? I've also noted a lack of new videos on the FZ website. I like to view the webinars as well, after the event, on demand I think they're called, but also quite quiet in this regard. Anyway any news will be appreciated. Over & out, CJT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Hi CJ, Yes, this is something that we still intend to release in the future, but we have been devoting our resources to other priorities recently, and thus it is taking a little longer to release Layout as a completely separate option that can also be used with the Free version of formZ. It also takes quite awhile to develop new Webinars, but we are working on more for the future. You can view the extensive set of Webinar Replays here: http://www.formz.com/webinars/webinarReplay.html There are also Tutorial Videos that can be viewed directlly in formZ (from the Help Menu), or on-line here: http://www.formz.com/webinars/webinarReplay.html User Spotlights can also be a source of inspiration and learning. If you haven't seen these, you can find them here: http://www.formz.com/home/user_story6.html Stay tuned for future announcements, there is lots more good stuff coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJTFORM-Z Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 Hi CJ, Yes, this is something that we still intend to release in the future, but we have been devoting our resources to other priorities recently, and thus it is taking a little longer to release Layout as a completely separate option that can also be used with the Free version of formZ. It also takes quite awhile to develop new Webinars, but we are working on more for the future. You can view the extensive set of Webinar Replays here: http://www.formz.com/webinars/webinarReplay.html There are also Tutorial Videos that can be viewed directlly in formZ (from the Help Menu), or on-line here: http://www.formz.com/webinars/webinarReplay.html User Spotlights can also be a source of inspiration and learning. If you haven't seen these, you can find them here: http://www.formz.com/home/user_story6.html Stay tuned for future announcements, there is lots more good stuff coming! Thanks Tech, I've seen all (well...most) the videos to date from your links, all good stuff indeed, as a wishlist, I'd love to see more videos for the construction industry, i.e. my field, Architectural Plans from 'Top-to-tail' to final presentation with Layout. So I will stay tuned. Over & out, CJT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 To all, I'm looking to add some new software to assist me with my small Architectural Business here in the UK, I’m currently using DataCAD, STI SPIRIT & SketchUP Pro. Not looking to spend a fortune, just looking to improve upon what I already have with a similar Budget as SU-Pro. In essence, I would like more architectural bias 3D integral tools than SketchUP has, rather than adding extension (plug-ins). I've been using SU since ver.3 & have seen Bonzai3D develop over the years. I've always thought Bonzai3D was perhaps the better of the two, but needed to also present my saved views, i.e. plans sections, visuals etc. on Layout sheets. At the time SU was developing, they produced a separate program called Layout, so this suited my needs. However I now see Form.Z-Pro (ver.8.5) has something similar, hence my new interest. I was initially looking at Form.Z-Jr, but then realised "Layout" was only part of Form.Z-Pro (ver.8.5). Price wise here in the UK SU & Form.Z are as listed below (incl.vat):- SKetchUp Pro (2015) = £480.00 Form.Z-Jr (ver.8) = £378.00 Form.Z-Pro (ver.8) = £762.00 I did hear talk that Form.Z may be offering their "Layout" version as an add-on & more interestingly a more bias version of Form.Z for the construction industry, i.e. Architecture/BIM. If true, this would be all very interesting for me & I'm sure other Architectural users currently using SU. One annoying factor though with SU Layout, is that being a separate program than SU, it does noticeably take a long time to update the sheet view ports when altering your SU model. I hope there will be another version of Form.Z-Jr in the not too distant future, this being :- Form.Z-Jr+ at £480.00 (similar price as SU-Pro) that includes an integrated sheet Layout tool. Any comments on this will be most appreciated. I think that in your position, not to go for pro, would be to miss out on a whole lot more than Layout. I, as a furniture designer-maker, would be lost without the 'information management' feature which gets data out of FormZ and into a spreadsheet format, as well as checking info about a selection on the fly. I use FormZ free as well and the feature I most miss in that is 'Isolate Objects, and Reveal Objects'. I don't know whether Junior includes that feature but you may like to check that as it improves workflow a lot and is more robust than edit group which you have to exit before saving the file. At least there is the option to upgrade from Junior to Pro but you may get a better deal by buying Pro from the start. By the way, FormZ is probably the best value design package around and I don't think anything compares to it for speed of use. People rave about SU but FZ is a far quicker model production tool in my experience. I have a SU pro 8 license, but is now unused, that is testimony to these facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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